A
BYZANTINE ARS NOVA: THE 14TH-CENTURY REFORMS OF JOHN KOUKOUZELES IN
THE CHANTING OF GREAT VESPERS

One
of the salient manifestations of Byzantine civilization was the continuing
ability of the Empire to recuperate its strength throughout a millennium of
military, theological, and dynastic crises. After the Latin occupation of
Constantinople during the first half of the 13th century, Byzantium once
again channeled its creative forces for what was to be the final glow of its
intellectual and artistic life. During the Palaeologan dynasty, which ruled
the moribund Byzantine state from 1261 until its fall in 1453, a host of
outstanding men emerged— mystics, theologians, philosophers, mathematicians,
historians, statesmen, artists and their patrons, and composers of
monophonie chants for the offices and liturgies of the Byzantine rite.
[1]

The
most important name associated with Byzantine chant in the 14th century is
Ioannes (John) Koukouzeles, traditionally called 'a second John of
Damascus', 'the second source of Greek music', or simply 'the master'.
Notwithstanding Koukouzeles' preeminence as a composer of Greek Church
music, his βίος or
vita[2] offers substantial evidence that his

1. Unlike the medieval church music of Western Europe
which was to develop along polyphonic lines, the music of the Byzantine rite
remained exclusively monophonic, chants of a single vocal line. The neumatic
notational system of Byzantine music, which differs radically from the
modern Western staff of lines and spaces, was a means of expressing relative
pitch and rhythmic values through symbols placed above a Greek text. A given
neunte or sign indicates the size of the melodic interval in pitch from
the neume which immediately precedes. For a discussion of the
Byzantine system of notation, cf. H. J. W. Tillyard, Handbook of the
Middle Byzantine Notation, "Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae", Subsidia, I,
fasc. i (Copenhagen, 1935) and Egon Wellesz, A History of Byzantine Music
and Hymnography, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1961), pp. 261-310. The musical
examples which accompany the present study are transcriptions from the
Byzantine system into Western notation.

2. Eight manuscripts are known which preserve the vita
of John Koukouzeles, who became a saint in the Greek Church and whose feast is
celebrated on October 1. An edited collation of two 17th-century sources
from the Great Laura on Mount Athos (Laura I. 23 and I. 45) has been
published by Sophronios Eustratiades in his article, "Ιωάννης ὁ Κουκουζέλης,
ὁ Μαΐστωρ, καί ὁ χρόνος τῆς ἀκμῆς αὐτοῦ", Ἐπετρηρὶς Ἑταιρείας Βυζαντινῶν
Σπουδῶν, XIV (1938), pp. 4-9. A Russian translation of the vita in
Leningrad 239 (Porfiry Uspensky collection no. 5) by P. A. Syrku appears in
his article, "Zhitie Ioanna Kukuzelia͡,
kak' istochnik' dlia͡
bolgarskol istorii", Zhurnal’ Ministerstva Narodnago Prosvieshcheniia,
CCLXXXII (1892), pp. 132-134. Two important printed versions of the vita
can be found in Agapios of Crete's Ἁμαρτωλῶν σωτηρία (Venice, 1851), pp.
292-294 and in Stephanos Lampadarios’ Κρηπὶς, ἤτοι νέα στοιχειώδης
διδασκαλία τοῦ θεωρητικοῦ καὶ πρακτικοῦ τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς μουσικῆς
(Constantinople, 1890), pp. 125-128.

212

ethnic background may have been at least half Slavic. [3]
From the information provided in his hagiographical biography four conclusions
can be drawn about the Balkan background of Koukouzeles : 1) He was born in
Dyrrachium, some of whose citizens were Slavs; [4] 2) his
native tongue was not Greek; [5] 3) his father may or may
not have been Slavic; [6] 4) his

3. Two major problems in the vita of Koukouzeles
are his precise epoch and his ethnic origins. The dates of Koukouzeles'
activity, object of much scholarly controversy, have been stretched across
four centuries — from the beginning of the 12th century to the beginning of
the 16th. Cf. Miloš Velimirović, "Two Composers of Byzantine Music: John
Vatatzes and John Laskaris", Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music; a
Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese (New York, 1966), p. 818, n. 1, and
Kenneth Levy, "A Hymn for Thursday in Holy Week", Journal of the American
Musicological Society, XVI (1963), p. 156, n. 47. The latest evidence
and research now shows Koukouzeles to have been active in the first half of
the 14th century. Velimirović has already pointed to certain Serbian
relationships in the activity of two Byzantine composers of the 15th
century: Ioakeim the Monk and Manuel Chrysaphes. See his article, "Ἰωακεὶμ
μοναχὸς τοῦ Χαρσιανίτου καὶ δομέστικος Σερβίας", Zbornik radova
vizantološkog instituta, VIII2
(Mélanges G. Ostrogorsky II; Belgrade, 1964), pp. 451-454.

4. Dyrrachium, the present city of
Durrës on the Albanian littoral, was an Illyrian seaport
which lay at a point where the Byzantine, Slavic, and Latin worlds
converged. According to Šufflay, all Balkan types were to be found there:
Greek, Rumanian-Bulgarian, Bosnian-Dalmation, and Serbian-Montenegrin. Names
in historical sources and registers show that not only Greeks and Slavs, but
Italians, Albanians, and even a Jewish colony were living in medieval
Dyrrachium. Milan von Šufflay, "Das mittelalterliche Albanien", in Ludwig
von Thallóczy, Illyrisch-albanische Forschungen, I (Munich, 1916), p.
284. Cf. also Šufflay's "Die Lage und Vergangenheit der Stadt Durazzo in
Albanien", in Thallóczy, op. cit., I, p. 162.

5. That Koukouzeles’ native tongue was not Greek the
vita indirectly divulges through an episode which relates the traditional
origin of his name. The hagiographer discloses that Koukouzeles, when asked
by his schoolmates in Constantinople what he had eaten that day, was not yet
"in full command of the Greek language" and replied, "κουκία καὶ ζέλια"
('beans and cabbage' in Bulgarian). From this response his schoolmates are
alleged to have fashioned the nickname "Koukouzeles". Eustratiades, op.
cit., p. 4. Cf. R. Palikarova Verdeil, La Musique byzantine chez les
Bulgares et les Russes (du IXe au XIVe siècle), "Monumenta Musicae
Byzantinae", Subsidia, III (Copenhagen, 1953), p. 196.

6. Of his father, who died when Koukouzeles was very young
according to the vita, nothing further is recorded: Eustratiades, op.
cit., p. 4. A few musical sources transmit the composer's surname as
"Papadopoulos" which may indicate that Koukouzeles' father was Greek, or
that the Slavic name Popović at some point may have been Hellenized, or even
that Koukouzeles may have been the son of a priest.

213

mother was almost certainly Slavic and in all probability Bulgarian.
[7] During Koukouzeles' education in Constantinople as a
protegé of the emperor, however, he must have been completely Hellenized
for, when he abandoned the imperial capital for a monk's life on Mount
Athos, he went not to the Bulgarian foundation of Zographou nor to the
Serbian monastery of Chilandari but to the Great Laura of Saint Athanasios,
the most venerable Greek establishment on the peninsula.

By
the beginning of the 14th century a new type of music manuscript was being
used in the services of the Greek Church. Officially called Akolouthiai
(Ἀκολουθίαι), this book was an anthology and contained within a single
volume a collection of chants, both ordinary and proper, for the orders of
the morning and evening offices as well as musical settings for the three
liturgies. [8]
Although similar in general contents, the repertory of each Akolouthiai may
reflect the preferences of a particular monastic establishment or even the
tastes of an individual scribe. A scribe would copy the traditional
repertory without any major alterations but would exercise his own editorial
prerogatives in adding new chants by his contemporaries. In this way the
repertories of the Akolouthiai were constantly in the process of being
brought up to date. [9] The Akolouthiai were distinguished
from other Byzantine music manuscripts by

7. The most striking 'Slavicisms' in the vita are words
spoken by Koukouzeles' mother: "μόε δέτε μίλο Ἰωάννη γδέμησε" ('My dear
child John, where are you?'). This lament, although transmitted in Greek
characters in the vita, is a transliteration of Slavic speech: "Мое дѣте
милъ Иване, гдѣ ли ми си?" These are the words which Koukouzeles is reported
to have used as the text for his composition, the Polyeleos "Bulgara":
Eustratiades, op. cit., p. 5. The Polyeleos "Bulgara" has been
studied by Mme. Lada Brashovanova-Stancheva in her article, "Prouchvani ıa͡
vŭrkhu zhivota i deĭnostta na Ioan Kukuzel", in Izvestiia na instituta za
muzika, VI (Bulgarska Akademi ıa͡
na Naukite; Sofia, 1959), pp. 30-33.

8. This type of manuscript, thought to have been compiled
by or under the direction of John Koukouzeles about the year 1300, is also
found under such names as Ἀνθολόγιον, Ἀνοιζαντάριον, Ψαλτικὴ, Παπαδικὴ, or
Μουσικόν. The official name however, in the plural, is Ἀκολουθίαι meaning
'Orders of Service'. Cf. Oliver Strunk, "The Antiphons of the Octoechos",
Journal of the American Musicological Society, XIII (1960), p. 53. For a
discussion of the Asmatikon and Psaltikon, the immediate musical
predecessors of the Akolouthiai, cf. Levy, op. cit., pp. 131, 149,
and 155.

9. Strunk, op. cit., p. 54. No less than fourteen
Akolouthiai survive from the 14th century, and the number from the 15th
century is more than twice this number. Of approximately fifty Akolouthiai
manuscripts known to have been copied before the year 1500, the greatest
number are located in three principal repositories: the National Library of
Greece in Athens, the library of Saint Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai
peninsula, and the numerous monastic libraries on Mount Athos (especially in
the collections of Iviron, Vatopedi, and the Great Laura).

214

the
predominance of those chants which were 'newly-composed' and which carried
attributions to a number of Byzantine composers. [10]
Although the chanted repertories and their sequence in the Akolouthiai vary
somewhat from copy to copy, a representative manuscript will transmit the
psalmody for the Prooemiac Psalm for Great Vespers. [11] A
study of Koukouzeles' contributions to the psalmody of the Prooemiac Psalm
will demonstrate the impact of his art upon Great Vespers.
[12]

Stylistically and chronologically musical settings for Psalm 103 fall into two
basic categories: 1) a small group of anonymous, 'quasi-traditional' chants,
[13] and 2) an ever-expanding corpus of 'newly-composed'

10. Velimirović points out that attributions to specific
composers were common in Akolouthiai but were somewhat exceptional in other
types of Byzantine music manuscripts. Miloš Velimirović, "Byzantine
Composers in MS. Athens 2406", Essays Presented to Egon Wellesz
(Oxford, 1966), p. 8.

11. The Prooemiac or 'Introductory' Psalm in the
numeration of the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate is Psalm 103; in
the Masoretic and King James Psalters, Psalm 104. Each verse of the
Prooemiac Psalm is subdivided into two or more poetic lines. Verse 35, for
example, the last verse of the Psalm, contains three lines, each of which
carries a letter (viz. 35a, 35b, 35c). From verse 28b through verse
35c, that is, from the second line of verse 28 through the third line of
verse 35, selected lines of Psalm 103 receive musical settings. Following
verse 35c four previous lines of the Psalm are added to the musical
performance: verse 19b and 20a with their striking evening imagery, and
verses 24a and 24b which function as a summation of the Psalm's spiritual
substance. For a discussion of the performance practice of the Prooemiac
Psalm, see the forthcoming study by Miloš Velimirović, "The Prooemiac Psalm
of Byzantine Vespers", in Words and Music Dedicated to A. T. Merritt
(Cambridge, Mass., to be published).

12. By the beginning of the 14th century a millennium of
liturgical conflict and amalgamation in the Orthodox East between the rites
of Jerusalem and Constantinople had produced Great Vespers (μεγάλος
ἑσπερινός), a 'mixed' form of the evening office. Almost universally
observed in the Empire during the reign of the Palaeologoi (1261-1453) Great
Vespers embraced both monastic and urban features from the two important
spiritual centers of the East. For a discussion of the liturgical processes
which crystallized in Great Vespers of the 14th and 15th centuries, cf.
Mikhail Skaballanovich,
Tolkovyĭ tipikon’, I (Kiev, 1910), pp. 393ff, 492; N. D. Uspenskil,
"Pravoslavnaıa͡
Verchernıa͡
(istoriko-liturgicheskiĭ ocherk)", Bogoslovskie trudy, I (Moscow,
1959), pp. 33-39; and Anton Baumstark, "Denkmäler der Entstehungsgeschichte
des byzantinischen Ritus", Oriens Christianus, 3rd series, II (1927),
pp. 22-27.

When
preserved in the Akolouthiai the evening office shows at least two, but more
frequently three and four, different chanted texts: 1) the 'Invitatory'
exclamations (Δεῦτε προσκυνήσωμεν…); 2) the Prooemiac Psalm (Psalm 103); 3)
the First Stasis (Psalms 1, 2, and 3); and 4) kalophonic (i.e. embellished)
settings for Psalm 2. The second and third items above are to be found in
all Akolouthiai which transmit Great

13. Only four settings for the Prooemiac Psalm bear the
'quasi-traditional' label "παλαιόν" or "ἀρχαῖον" ('old'): verses 28b, 29a,
35c, and 24b. Verse 29a is preserved only in Sinai 1293 and Athens 2406,
both mid-15th-century sources. A unique 'quasi-traditional' setting for
verse 35c appears in the very oldest source, Sinai 1256, and was never
recopied. Because of its atypical construction with a Doxology, Alleluias,
and δόζα refrains appended to the conclusion of the Prooemiac Psalm, verse
24b will not be considered in this study with the other three
'quasi-traditional' settings.

215

melodies, the work of individual Byzantine composers. The transmission of
these two stylistic strata of the Prooemiac Psalm in five selected Byzantine
music manuscripts copied between 1309—1453 is shown in Table 1, (p. 217).

The
earliest sources which transmit chants for the Prooemiac Psalm are not
Akolouthiai but two Heirmologia: [14] Sinai 1256 (copied
in 1309) and Sinai 1257 (copied in 1332). Sinai 1256, the older of the two
manuscripts, carries only three lines of the Psalm in 'quasi-traditional'
musical settings: verses 28b, 35c, and 24b. The second Heirmologion, Sinai
1257, although it drops the 'quasi-traditional' setting for verse 35c, still
transmits the same archaic settings of 28b and 24b. [15]
In addition it carries three new unattributed chants for verses 29b, 31a,
and 35a. A comparison of these three chant melodies in Sinai 1257 with the
same repertory in Athens 2458 (copied in 1336), the oldest dated
Akolouthiai, discloses that the three chants, although they bear no
attribution, are by no means anonymous. They are in fact the first, second,
and fourth melodies ascribed to John Koukouzeles in Athens 2458. Sinai 1257
is the earliest source to show the juxtaposition — although incognito — of
two different musical strata in the repertory of the Prooemiac Psalm.
[16]

With
the transmission of the first chants of Koukouzeles for verses 29b, 31a, and
35a, Sinai 1257 discloses 'the master' as an innovator, the first composer
of the 'newly-composed' repertory for Great Vespers. In Athens 2458 two more
melodies by Koukouzeles were added to the repertory of the Prooemiac Psalm
for verses 33a and 35c, the first complete transmission of the five chant
melodies composed by Koukouzeles for the Prooemiac Psalm. [17]
In addition to the five compositions of Koukouzeles, Athens 2458 also
preserves one setting by Panaretos and

14. A Heirmologion contains the Heirmoi of the Kanon, a
musico-poetic form sung during Orthros, the morning office. The anomalous
inclusion of Great Vespers in the two Sinai Heirmologia occurs after the
normal corpus of Heirmoi.

15. All Akolouthiai which transmit Great Vespers preserve
'quasi-traditional' settings for verses 28b and 24b, the first and last
lines of that portion of Psalm 103 which is chanted with refrains.

16. The first known chant by Koukouzeles for the office
of Great Vespers is transmitted, not in the repertory of the Prooemiac
Psalm, but as a setting for verse 8c from Psalm 3 in the First Stasis. The
rubric which accompanies the chant in Sinai 1256 (1309 A.D.) identifies it
as "a new melody composed by John Papadopoulos Koukouzeles". This
attribution records the oldest known example of a 'newly-composed' setting
of Psalm text for Great Vespers and suggests through the adjective "new"
that this composition of Koukouzeles, appearing at the beginning of the
century, represents a significant break with the older repertory.

17. The numerical identification of Koukouzeles' chants
for the Prooemiac Psalm applies to their sequential order in Athens 2458.

three
by Xenos Koronis. [18] Each succeeding copy of Akolouthiai
shows a marked increase in the number of 'newly-composed' settings between
verses 28b and 24b. Athens 2406, copied in 1453, the very year the Empire
fell, transmits an extensive repertory for the Prooemiac Psalm.

Both
'quasi-traditional' and 'newly-composed' chants carry a refrain after the
line of Psalm text. In its original form the refrain is the short
acclamation : δὸζα σοι ὁ θεός ('Glory to Thee, O God'). From a textual
standpoint each setting is bipartite: 1) a line from Psalm 103, and 2) the
δόζα refrain. See example 1, (p. 226).

The
note count in Table 2 reveals that three melodies of Koukouzeles (chants 1,
2, and 4) for the Prooemiac Psalm are substantially longer than the
'quasi-traditional' settings. Of greater internal significance, however, is
the ratio of proportion between the length of the music for the Psalm text
and the music for the refrain in each type of setting. The refrain in the
three 'quasi-traditional' settings occupies roughly one-fifth the entire
length of the chant, or, in more obvious terms, the chant of the Psalm text
in the older settings is considerably more important than the chants for the
refrain.

18. Xenos Koronis was probably a younger contemporary of
Koukouzeles also active in the first half of the 14th century. Levy, op.
cit., p. 156.

217

TABLE
1

Transmission of Chants For the Prooemiac Psalm in Five Manuscript Sources

218

TABLE
2

Proportions of Psalm Texts and Refrains in 'Quasi-traditional' Settings and
Chants of Koukouzeles for the Prooemiac Psalm

In
the chants of Koukouzeles, however, the refrains are never subordinated to
the Psalm text either in their musical length or their liturgical import.
The refrains in chants 3, 4, and 5 are almost as long as the portion of
music which carries the Psalm text; Koukouzeles' chants 1 and 2, on the
other hand, reveal that the musical length of the refrain not only greatly
exceeds that of the Scriptural text but is roughly twice the length of the
Psalm text segment. In striking contrast to the 'quasi-traditional' function
of the refrain as a brief cadential appendage to the Psalm text, Koukouzeles
has assigned his refrain settings much greater structural significance. He
has shifted the emphasis by reversing the older structural relationship and
has at the same time increased the overall musical dimensions of his
settings.

Table
3 gives overall proportional progressions in the Prooemiac Psalm during the
14th and 15th centuries. The shortest chants are the 'quasi-traditional'
settings; at the other end of the scale lie the 'newly-composed' examples of
the 15th century. Between the two extremes proportional development moves
steadily in the direction of an increase in the size of settings. Table 3
further reveals that this expansion was actually effected within the
confines of the refrain alone. The length of the musical segment for the
Psalm text remains relatively constant, although the refrain :xpand in the
hands of each succeeding generation.

219

TABLE
3

Averages of Proportions in Psalm Texts and Refrains for 14th and 15th-Century
Settings of the Prooemiac Psalm

Not
only is the text of the refrain itself unembellished in the
'quasi-traditional' chants — simply δόζα σοι ὁ θεός — but the musical
settings for this acclamation are almost perfunctory. The refrain functions
as no more than a brief formulaic ending to the chanted line of Scripture.
The refrains of Koukouzeles' chants 3 and 5, however, may represent this
composer's first cautious attempts to expand the text of the refrain and
hence to enlarge the musical dimensions of each setting.

The
two texts merely repeat the first two Greeks words (δόζα σοι) of the refrain
before and after the acclamation proper. The refrains for Koukouzeles'
melodies 1, 2, and 4 reveal even more original and significant innovations
by the composer and exhibit the first examples of textual 'troping', a
technique which Koukouzeles' successors were to exploit in the 15th century.
[20]

20. The most significant feature of the δόζα refrains is
their virtual function as a composer’s signature. Each refrain, as troped
and set by a given composer, remains attributed to that composer regardless
of the source in which it appears. For a discussion of the troped refrains
and the principle of melodic migration in the Prooemiac Psalm, see the
fothcoming article by Miloš Velimirović, "The Prooemiac Psalm of Byzantine
Vespers" in
Words and Music Dedicated to A. T. Merritt (Cambridge, Mass., to be
published).

From
the elementary repetition and elaboration of certain elements in the
original text, the troped refrain attained such proportions in 15th-century
settings that it soon overshadowed the Psalm text both in its verbal length
and musical emphasis. As a mere cadential appendage to the Psalm text in the
'quasi-traditional' chants the refrain soon grew to dominate the line of
Scripture which it accompanied and eventually gave vent to elaborate
utterances colored with the subtle nuances of Byzantine theology.
[22]

A
tabulation of the melodic ranges, in Table 4, for the three
'quasi-traditional' settings reveals in each case that the melodic range of
the refrain is substantially smaller than the melodic range of the Psalm
text. The range of each refrain, moreover, is confined to the melodic
intervals of a fourth or a fifth.

Parallel to Koukouzeles' expansion of the refrain text through troping is his
bolder exploitation of vocal range. Not only do the total ranges of the five
Koukouzeles settings either equal or exceed the total ranges of

Ranges of Psalm text and refrains in 'quasi-traditional' and Koukouzeles
settings for the Prooemiac Psalm

the
three 'quasi-traditional' chants, but four out of the five refrains of
Koukouzeles are larger in range than the preceding chant which bears the
Psalm text. The refrain ranges in the older chants (a fifth) were
significantly narrower than the ranges for the Psalm text. Koukouzeles has
inverted the relationship of melodic range between the two portions of a
setting and has again through his own compositions shifted the ratio of
range in the 'quasi-traditional' chants. By mid-14th century Koukouzeles had
established the ninth as the preferred melodic interval and the tenth as the
maximum vocal spectrum. That later 14th and 15th-century composers
demonstrate a preference for even wider ambitus (as shown in Table 5)
is no doubt linked to the general increase in the overall length

222

TABLE
5

Total
Ranges of 14th and 15th-century Settings of the Prooemiac Psalm

of
settings and from the innovations of 'the master'. [23]
With the exception of a single chant by Xenos Koronis, not until the advent
of John Lampadarios [24] and his 15th-century
contemporaries did composers venture beyond Koukouzeles' conception of
range.

Although the melodic range of the chant for the Psalm text in the
'quasi-traditional' chants is somewhat greater than the range for the
refrain, this relationship was gradually reversed during the 14th and early
15th century until by mid-15th century the size of the melodic range for the
refrain was considerably greater than that for the Psalm text. The
relationship between the two portions of a chant is illustrated in Table 6.
The ambitus of the chant for the Psalm text, like its length, became
a frozen component — the conservative element in a setting; the range of the
refrain, on the other hand, like the troped expansion of its text, increased
untrammeled. Although disjunct melodic motion (i.e. leaps of a third or
more) in the predominantly conjunct or stepwise 'quasi-traditional' lines is
mainly limited to the interval of the third, the greatest amount of disjunct
writing falls in the Psalm text portion of the setting while the melodic
line of the refrain remains relatively conjunct. Since the majority of
thirds are descending thirds, this feature suggests that the vocal writing
is predominantly stepwise in ascent but tends to descend by leaps. The five
chants of Koukouzeles for the Prooemiac Psalm, as shown in Table 7, reveal
not only a substantial increase over the 'quasi-

23. This phenomenon in range may connote certain
virtuosic developments in late Byzantine vocal art. For a study of the
kalophonic or 'beautified' repertory for Psalm 2, see my forthcoming
article, "The Treatment of Text in the Kalophonic Chanting of Psalm 2", in
Studies in Eastern Chant, II (to be published by the Oxford University
Press).

24. The work of Ioannes (John) Lampadarios first appears
in music manuscripts of the later 14th century. Levy, op. cit., p.
156, n. 47.

223

TABLE
6

Ranges for Psalm Texts and Refrains of 14th and 15th-Century Settings of the
Prooemiac Psalm[*]

*. Figures indicate the number of setting within each
category which show a given range.

TABLE
7

Melodic Intervals of Psalm Texts and Refrains in the Settings of Koukouzeles
for the Prooemiac Psalm

224

TABLE
8

Melodic Intervals in 14th and 15th-Century Settings of the Prooemiac Psalm

225

traditional' settings in the disjunct motion of their melodies but also employ
a variety of intervals larger than the ascending or descending third. His
chants, furthermore, contain unprecedented instances of two and three
consecutive leaps and the upward leap of an octave.

Koukouzeles' first, second, and fourth chants which
contain the most pronounced textual troping in the refrains also display the
most disjunct motion in the melodic line of the refrains. The refrains of
chants 3 and 5, on the other hand, with the simplest textual elaboration
exhibit the most conjunct lines. From the character of their melodic lines
the five Koukouzeles melodies for the Prooemiac Psalm may have been composed
in the sequential order 5, 3, 4, 2, and 1. Chants 3 and 5 may represent the
composer's stylistic bridge from an older 'quasi-traditional' repertory to
the more characteristic 14th-century style revealed in his first, second,
and fourth chants.

Table
8 discloses that the frequency of descending thirds, although substantially
greater in the 14th century than ascending thirds, is exceeded in the
mid-15th century by ascending thirds. This development in the line implies
that ascending melodic direction is more conjunct than descending in the
14th century. In the 15th century the opposite is true — ascending motion is
more disjunct than descending motion.

The
musical structure of the five Koukouzeles chants rests upon three
distinctive melodic segments: 1) an initial recitation formula; 2) an inner
melodic bridge ; and 3) a cadential formula. See example 2, (p. 226).

The
recitation formula is a stereotyped pattern for chanting the opening words
of the Psalm text. The basic recitation pitch is G, the finalis of the
fourth plagal mode, but accented syllables in the Greek text receive a
corresponding musical inflection a whole step higher on A.
[25] What at first appears to be a random choice in the number of
syllables which carry the recitation formula was actually determined by the
syllable count in a given line of the Psalm. The amount of text subjected to
formulaic recitation was apparently determined by the length of a given line
from the Psalm. Since the last four or five syllables of a line received a
more melodic and often more melismatic setting, the portion of the line
which preceded, whatever the number of syllables, was relegated to the
recitation formula. The longer the line, the more words fell to the

25. Two notable exceptions to this formulaic treatment of
the beginning of the Psalm text are the first and second melodies of
Koukouzeles whose initia stand closer to a more melodic aspect in the
'quasi-traditional' settings. These chants may reflect the influence of the
older tradition upon Koukouzeles' art.

formula; the shorter the line, the less text would be sung to the formula.
[26] The inner melodic bridge, supported between two
conservative formulae, serves as the outlet for the most individual and
original expressions of the Byzantine composer. The pitch of the central
segment may rise gradually from that of the recitation formula (e.g.
Koukouzeles' chants 1 and 2) or may break abruptly from the level of the
note of recitation and immediately commence on a higher tonal stratum (e.g.
Koukouzeles' settings 3, 4, and 5). The inner bridge in chant melody 5
sustains the melodic line around D which serves briefly as the center of
melodic gravity, a perfect fifth above the finalis of the mode.

26. Some chants are even transmitted in 'truncated' form
in which the inner melodic segment alone is copied out in full with new
words. The recitation formula is omitted entirely and only the incipit of
the refrain is copied. From such an abbreviated version of a setting the
singers were obviously expected to fit the initial words of text to the
recitation formula. The melody of the Psalm text proper they then sang with
new words from the manuscript in hand. The chant for the refrain had
previously been copied in full.

227

The
cadential formula returns the melodic line to the finalis of the mode.
Comparative examples of a cadential formula in the fourth plagal mode shown
in Example 3 reveal the same melodic skeleton as the structural foundation
of earlier Byzantine chants as well as for the Koukouzeles settings in the
14th century.

EXAMPLE 3

Formulaic module

EXAMPLE 4

XenKor. no. 6 (Athens 2622 f. 6v)

Since
the cadential formula normally concludes on the same pitch from which the
initial recitation pattern began, the melodic structure of each setting may
be described as a departure from the finalis, an excursus, and a return to
the finalis.

One
of the most telling ways through which Koukouzeles reveals his new attitude
is in the structure of the 'joint' or textual hiatus between the end of the
Psalm verse and the beginning of the refrain. This joint in both the
'quasi-traditional' and Koukouzeles settings is exclusively conjunct (either
a unison or a second). Quite unlike the structures of the three
'quasi-traditional' chants which treat the refrain as an addition to the
Psalm text, in four of his five settings Koukouzeles regards the refrain as
an integral part of the total setting. [27] By avoiding a
disjunct interval

27. Chant 3 is the only one of the five by Koukouzeles
which shows a cadential ending at the end of the Psalm text.

228

and a
cadential finality on G at the beginning of the refrain, Koukouzeles
composes his musical line across the textual rift in a larger melodic arch
and demonstrates that his musical concept of a setting is continuous rather
than bipartite. Most Byzantine composers after Koukouzeles, however, treat
the structure of Psalm text and refrain in the bipartite manner of the
'quasi-traditional' settings and preserve the independence of Psalm verse
and refrain.

Aesthetically and musically Koukouzeles' melodies 1 and 2 are his most
distinguished works for the Prooemiac Psalm. The more abrupt phrases and
common melodic figuration in chants 3,4, and 5 are replaced by vocal
passages of imagination and musical sensitivity. Within the formulaic
limitations of a conventional musical vocabulary Koukouzeles composed lines
with a vocal coloration not to be found in the more restricted ranges and
contours of the 'quasi-traditional' settings. Unlike Koukouzeles' restrained
use of formulaic devices, Xenos Koronis, his 14th-century contemporary,
relies upon chains of stock melodic figures to attenuate his lines.

Whereas Koukouzeles discreetly employs the same formulae with an inner musical
logic, Koronis seems to propel his melodies more through determination than
through melodic momentum. In the hands of later 14th and 15th-century
composers lines often degenerate into unrelieved roulades of melodic
clichés. John Lampadarios, even more than Koronis, depends upon successions
of formulaic patterns to construct his lines.

EXAMPLE 5

Lamp.
no. 3 (Athens 899 f. 43r)

Lampadarios may also extend lines through immediate
repetition of short modules joined by melodic 'mortar'.

Such
techniques of composition are much more transparent than Koukouzeles' more
integrated methods. Only a handful of later settings in the large repertory
for the Prooemiac Psalm echo the melodic sophistica-

229

tion
found in the works of 'the master'. Of other 14th and 15th-century settings
only three chants by Mystakonos, Doukas, and Raidestinos appear to follow
the style of Koukouzeles.

A
comparison of the repertories in the earliest sources which transmit chants
for the Prooemiac Psalm of Great Vespers reveals that by 1332 this psalmody
had entered an epoch of new musical enrichment. The 'newly-composed'
settings, however, were established between façades of an older and accepted
musical practice, a choice which may represent a reluctance among Byzantine
composers to alter appearances. The two 'quasi-traditional' buttresses
(verses 28b and 24b) support an immense span of new musical activity between
1332 and 1453. Both the troped text of the refrain and the more vigorous and
original inner melodic segment of the chant poise a precarious balance
between traditional forces of stability and new impulses toward artistic
freedom. In their musical litanies Byzantine composers, like Byzantine
artists, cast new ideas in archaic crucibles and shaped each new work in the
molds of an ever-valid past.

Statistical calculations for proportion, range, melodic line, and structure
thrust a revolutionary light upon the work of John Koukouzeles, the first
composer to turn his back upon an archaic, anonymous musical practice and
the first to offer a 'new art' for the evening office. As a Byzantine
musician Koukouzeles stands preeminent among figures of the Palaeologan
renaissance. As the composer who launched an ars nova in the Orthodox East,
his innovations in 14th-century Byzantium parallel those of Philippe de
Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut, his contemporaries in the West.